February 25, 2011
Bad Weather Has Delayed Remedial Work On Two Wells On Matras Sokolovskoe Field In Russia But The Company Sticks By Its Target of Achieving Up To 1000 bopd Soon
Last November we reported that investors in Matra Petroleum could be in line for an early Christmas present if all went to plan over the couple of ensuing months.
The AIM quoted companys work plan was capable of delivering production of 1000 barrels of oil per day, it said.
This news coupled with the release of a positive CPR on its Sokolovskoe field in Russia put some power behind the share price, pushing it up from 1.75p to 5p by late December; although it has fallen back a bit since then.
However, Christmas has been is a little late in arriving at Matras 100 per cent owned Arkhangelovskoe licence in the Orenberg region of Russia, which holds the Sokolovskoe field.
Although this area is has less severe climatic extremes than Siberia, it nevertheless gets extremely cold and what the company calls extraordinary weather conditions combined with the holiday season has caused delays to remedial work to two wells A13 and A12 which were to produce up to 1000 bopd.
But this month has seen the company announce both a placing of 50,000,000 ordinary shares at 3.1p per share to raise 1.55 million before expenses to add to working capital and an operations update saying the company has now made headway in getting the two wells to work.
Both wells have suffered from unwanted water production as highly productive water zones some 10 to 15 metres below the oil zones created cementing problems.
The company has now announced that periodic short flows of well-13 have shown the water zone has been successfully isolated and only oil is now flowing.
The well is flowing at a rate below 100 bopd. A further acid treatment may be required to improve production.
The company added:
It is very encouraging that the water zone has been isolated in well-13.
The very nature of remedial cementation means that the productive oil zone will have been partially plugged by cement too. We will now acquire pressure data that will allow us to estimate the wells true potential.
At A-12 the well is currently being sidetracked to access virgin reservoir some 50 metres from the original wellbore.
A spokesman told Oilbarrel that up to 1000 bopd should be met before too long.
This comes against the background of the upbeat CPR.
The report undertaken by Energy Resource Consultants, gives the field contingent recoverable resources of just over 15 million barrels:
the formal issue of a production licence which has been granted and the approval of a field development plan would convert these contingent resources into recoverable reserves under SPE guidelines.
The CPR also provided an estimate of the deterministic recoverable resources in the Sokolovskoe structure as mapped by reservoir experts
Equipoise Solutions, which was put at 23.7 million barrels (further drilling in the north east part of the field would be required to make this estimate suitable for SPE classifications).
More interesting, however, is the potential upside, with the CPR pointing to an unrisked additional prospective recoverable resource of up to 84 million barrels (high case).
This upside is based on two assumptions: first, that updip of the existing wells the lower reservoir zones become hydrocarbon-bearing when they rise above the oil water contact (which the CPR gives a 60 per cent geological chance of success);
and second, the development of patch reefs, highly permeable and porous limestone reefs that could yield production sweet spots (a 32 per cent chance of success).
The geological review concluded that the company has yet to encounter the best part of the reservoir and that the main reefs are most likely very close to existing wells and the possibility remains that reserves will ultimately be much higher.
The company is keen to chase down this upside and is planning a 3D seismic campaign to get underway at the beginning of next year.
Two to three more wells are also planned, one of which could get underway before the seismic comes in.
First, however, the priority is to bring A12 and A13 online
http://www.oilbarrel.com/nc/news/display_news/article/bad-weather-has-delayed-remedial-work-on-two-wells-on-matras-sokolovskoe-field-in-russia-but-the/860.html